“Weird”, however, may be a bit generous for much of the intellectual and artistic manure being pumped out every year.
My wife and I have used a plethora of adjectives to describe the scores of movies we started to watch via our streaming service subscriptions, but had to stop anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes in. But “weird” wasn’t among those we used. It’s not incorrect, though, and fits well for so much of the slop they’re producing.
We concluded that the art of comedy in movies has been lost, after surviving for almost 80 years. What is labeled as “comedy” since anywhere from 2000 to 2010 in general has been either juvenile toilet humor or sophomoric schadenfreude.
Gone is the subtle use of double entendres; being disgustingly explicit is in vogue.
Some movies have some temporarily funny scenes, but the drama, blood and violence that’s otherwise the primary feature tends to ruin the “comedy” classification in the listings.
I could drone on, but that’s what recent writers have done with too many movie scripts.
The word I have used over the last few years of watching Netflix or any movies that are getting turned out is satanic. I feel like there’s a pulling down of energy within the darkness of these movies. Netflix it’s very hard to turn on and watch anything, uplifting, positive, or colorful. The backdrops seem very dark, moody, end of the world, I turn it off or roll over and go to bed because I don’t need to be pulled into their low vibrational energy
I have often wondered why the lighting has become so much darker. A production designer told me it's because the digital era got rid of the need of a flood of lighting, so now they can afford (financially and luminously, I guess) to go without that expense. I feel like much television these days makes me grab for the remote and push the "Brightness" button!
Yes, juvenile or sophomoric – – or throwing woke in your face. And if none of these, it’s still likely to have a script that, like many French movies since state level subsidy started, written on the toilet or the car.
Oh, and the other thing that prevents me from wanting to watch anything is the constant infusion of today’s agenda: racial division, evil, white people, trans people that you don’t realize our trans until later, homosexual relationships in your face, and more negative imagery of white people. Even seemingly innocent movies have representations from these agendas.
Agreed. We've seen so many movies with excellent reviews that are absolutely horrible. Have any of you seen "Widows" from a few years ago? Great reviews, but one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Roger Ebert is turning in his grave.
That movie has a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes but I've often found those scores deceptive because of the widening gap between todays audiences' preferences and my own preferences. I have always liked Viola Davis' acting and would expect her to be more circumspect about the scripts in which she chooses to star, but maybe movie work for older black actresses has become thin....(IDK)
The movie had a good premise so I can see why she was attracted to the project. IMO it was the dour, self important direction that made the movie so bad. It should have been a fun action caper, instead it was an anvil of a movie.
Also the audience score is only 61% ... but it should be more like 3%.
What’s fascinating is the ebb and flow of cultural power. When the society built in the First Turning reigned supreme, Second Turning transgression was chic and counter culture. Then Third Turning art and film raced to accelerate that transgression until the old thing was fully dead. But now all that (once) counter-culture IS the culture. It is the python 🐍 that ate the alligator🐊 . It is shocking and horrifying to behold. Nothing healthy or productive. Just a Ripley’s Believe it Or Not shit-show of on-purpose weirdness pushing against nothing. Saying nothing. Summoning no alternative virtue. Just indulgent, nihilistic consumption in the spent guise of “personal freedom”. It’s Slash and Nikki Six waking up at the Chateau Marmont after an all night bender and reaching for their drug kit and bottle of Black Death vodka.
The new counter culture = NORMAL! Wholesome. Summoning a better body of virtue. Non-consumptive. Sacrificial. This is what Fourth Turnings bring. It is right on time. The nihilists who keep offering us indulgence and narcissism are now just as out of tune as the squares were in the 60s. Now it’s their turn to wonder when it all changed.
Raised on Andy Griffith, Mary Tyler Moore, Gunsmoke and Gilligan's Island. As time has passed, I assumed it was all about money as Hollywood sank into the gutter. It is clear now, it is more than the money. It is who they are and they are a leader of today's deviant revolution.
Hollywood will have to change. Their horrific impact on society and civilization is simply unacceptable. Easy enough for me to stop watching but we still have to live with those impacted by Hollywoods depravity.
Were you put on this earth to have your mind brainwashed watching sick people pretending to live a life or were you suppose to live your own life and create a life serving and inspiring others? Never forget every minute wasted on Hollywood is a minute lost in which you could have been finding and living your own purpose... instead of serving Hollywood's purpose.
I'm shocked people think Poor Things was feminist. It was written by a man, directed by a man and is about a woman with a toddler's brain who's obsessed with sex. WTF. It's a male fantasy. Nothing wrong with those, by the way, but that one was totally gross.
I'm old enough to remember my father taking me to see "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," which is arguably the greatest American film ever made.
I loved seventies films like "The Godfather" and others.
Film and TV today, even the good shows, have a flatness that betrays a lack of care, a disengagement, a falling off from, say, "The Godfather,' where every single detail is right.
Yes, this is right on target. Thank you! I still remember when we pivoted in the 1980s, away from those ugly or disturbed movies I had had to watch in my teens. Suddenly the movies had real plots again! Or more classic good looking people like Rob Lowe or Demi Moore. What a relief it was. Just like the beautiful imitation Downton Abbey decor in hotels took the place of the hideous orange and brown pseudo modern arrangements in hotels. But here we are again, back to the 70s but woke and much worse. At least Taxi Driver had realistic depictions of “the hood“. I’m surprised that they haven’t censored it yet.
"...make better movies and make them for everyone."
That doesn't mean appealing to the lowest common denominator, however.
Time was that a story told well, and had characters with depth that the viewer could care what happens to them regardless whether they were heroes or villains. For me, these were the hallmarks of a film worth the price of admission and the time spent in the theater even if the popcorn and Junior Mints were overpriced.
Per the late Jimmy Buffett's rant in the first few bars of spoken word in the song, "Fruitcakes", a relatively recent favourite among those of us who identify as Parrotheads, among other things:
"Take, for example, when you go to the movies these days, you know?
They try to sell you this jumbo drink
Eight extra ounces of watered-down cherry coke for an extra 25 cents
I don't want it
I don't want that much organization in my life
I don't want other people thinking for me
I want my Junior Mints! Where did the Junior Mints go [in the movies]?
I don't want a 12 pound Nestle's crunch for 25 dollars
Everything written in this article is 🎯
“Weird”, however, may be a bit generous for much of the intellectual and artistic manure being pumped out every year.
My wife and I have used a plethora of adjectives to describe the scores of movies we started to watch via our streaming service subscriptions, but had to stop anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes in. But “weird” wasn’t among those we used. It’s not incorrect, though, and fits well for so much of the slop they’re producing.
We concluded that the art of comedy in movies has been lost, after surviving for almost 80 years. What is labeled as “comedy” since anywhere from 2000 to 2010 in general has been either juvenile toilet humor or sophomoric schadenfreude.
Gone is the subtle use of double entendres; being disgustingly explicit is in vogue.
Some movies have some temporarily funny scenes, but the drama, blood and violence that’s otherwise the primary feature tends to ruin the “comedy” classification in the listings.
I could drone on, but that’s what recent writers have done with too many movie scripts.
The word I have used over the last few years of watching Netflix or any movies that are getting turned out is satanic. I feel like there’s a pulling down of energy within the darkness of these movies. Netflix it’s very hard to turn on and watch anything, uplifting, positive, or colorful. The backdrops seem very dark, moody, end of the world, I turn it off or roll over and go to bed because I don’t need to be pulled into their low vibrational energy
Yes, Woke = Satanic.
I have often wondered why the lighting has become so much darker. A production designer told me it's because the digital era got rid of the need of a flood of lighting, so now they can afford (financially and luminously, I guess) to go without that expense. I feel like much television these days makes me grab for the remote and push the "Brightness" button!
Yes, juvenile or sophomoric – – or throwing woke in your face. And if none of these, it’s still likely to have a script that, like many French movies since state level subsidy started, written on the toilet or the car.
Oh, and the other thing that prevents me from wanting to watch anything is the constant infusion of today’s agenda: racial division, evil, white people, trans people that you don’t realize our trans until later, homosexual relationships in your face, and more negative imagery of white people. Even seemingly innocent movies have representations from these agendas.
And nobody is pure or beautiful or GOOD. Nobody does anything praiseworthy or noble.
Agreed. We've seen so many movies with excellent reviews that are absolutely horrible. Have any of you seen "Widows" from a few years ago? Great reviews, but one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Roger Ebert is turning in his grave.
That movie has a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes but I've often found those scores deceptive because of the widening gap between todays audiences' preferences and my own preferences. I have always liked Viola Davis' acting and would expect her to be more circumspect about the scripts in which she chooses to star, but maybe movie work for older black actresses has become thin....(IDK)
The movie had a good premise so I can see why she was attracted to the project. IMO it was the dour, self important direction that made the movie so bad. It should have been a fun action caper, instead it was an anvil of a movie.
Also the audience score is only 61% ... but it should be more like 3%.
Best thing I’ve read about what’s wrong with Hollywood maybe ever.
What’s fascinating is the ebb and flow of cultural power. When the society built in the First Turning reigned supreme, Second Turning transgression was chic and counter culture. Then Third Turning art and film raced to accelerate that transgression until the old thing was fully dead. But now all that (once) counter-culture IS the culture. It is the python 🐍 that ate the alligator🐊 . It is shocking and horrifying to behold. Nothing healthy or productive. Just a Ripley’s Believe it Or Not shit-show of on-purpose weirdness pushing against nothing. Saying nothing. Summoning no alternative virtue. Just indulgent, nihilistic consumption in the spent guise of “personal freedom”. It’s Slash and Nikki Six waking up at the Chateau Marmont after an all night bender and reaching for their drug kit and bottle of Black Death vodka.
The new counter culture = NORMAL! Wholesome. Summoning a better body of virtue. Non-consumptive. Sacrificial. This is what Fourth Turnings bring. It is right on time. The nihilists who keep offering us indulgence and narcissism are now just as out of tune as the squares were in the 60s. Now it’s their turn to wonder when it all changed.
Very nicely said.
Another, very entertaining blog! I look forward to these because it helps me to recognize I’m not alone in seeing the madness in front of us
I searched and searched for the Barbenheimer movie! LOL
Sasha, yes, you rock!
Great piece Sasha. Couldn’t agree more. You do a great job mining out the hidden motivations driving it all.
Raised on Andy Griffith, Mary Tyler Moore, Gunsmoke and Gilligan's Island. As time has passed, I assumed it was all about money as Hollywood sank into the gutter. It is clear now, it is more than the money. It is who they are and they are a leader of today's deviant revolution.
Hollywood will have to change. Their horrific impact on society and civilization is simply unacceptable. Easy enough for me to stop watching but we still have to live with those impacted by Hollywoods depravity.
Were you put on this earth to have your mind brainwashed watching sick people pretending to live a life or were you suppose to live your own life and create a life serving and inspiring others? Never forget every minute wasted on Hollywood is a minute lost in which you could have been finding and living your own purpose... instead of serving Hollywood's purpose.
Great piece. But, no fair recycling the same outro music you already used in Free Thinking. ;-)
Excellent piece.
I'm shocked people think Poor Things was feminist. It was written by a man, directed by a man and is about a woman with a toddler's brain who's obsessed with sex. WTF. It's a male fantasy. Nothing wrong with those, by the way, but that one was totally gross.
When I go see Dune 2 I think it will be the first time I’ve gone to a movie since.... Dune 1.
This post makes me that much more glad of that.
Hollywoke
I'm old enough to remember my father taking me to see "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," which is arguably the greatest American film ever made.
I loved seventies films like "The Godfather" and others.
Film and TV today, even the good shows, have a flatness that betrays a lack of care, a disengagement, a falling off from, say, "The Godfather,' where every single detail is right.
Yes, this is right on target. Thank you! I still remember when we pivoted in the 1980s, away from those ugly or disturbed movies I had had to watch in my teens. Suddenly the movies had real plots again! Or more classic good looking people like Rob Lowe or Demi Moore. What a relief it was. Just like the beautiful imitation Downton Abbey decor in hotels took the place of the hideous orange and brown pseudo modern arrangements in hotels. But here we are again, back to the 70s but woke and much worse. At least Taxi Driver had realistic depictions of “the hood“. I’m surprised that they haven’t censored it yet.
"...make better movies and make them for everyone."
That doesn't mean appealing to the lowest common denominator, however.
Time was that a story told well, and had characters with depth that the viewer could care what happens to them regardless whether they were heroes or villains. For me, these were the hallmarks of a film worth the price of admission and the time spent in the theater even if the popcorn and Junior Mints were overpriced.
Per the late Jimmy Buffett's rant in the first few bars of spoken word in the song, "Fruitcakes", a relatively recent favourite among those of us who identify as Parrotheads, among other things:
"Take, for example, when you go to the movies these days, you know?
They try to sell you this jumbo drink
Eight extra ounces of watered-down cherry coke for an extra 25 cents
I don't want it
I don't want that much organization in my life
I don't want other people thinking for me
I want my Junior Mints! Where did the Junior Mints go [in the movies]?
I don't want a 12 pound Nestle's crunch for 25 dollars
I want Junior Mints!"